Château de Termes ( Castèl de Termes)

The Château de Termes is a ruined castle near the village
of Termes in the Aude département of the Languedoc. Built
on a promontory it is defended on three sides by deep ravines. The
ruins of the castle cover an area of 16 000m².

Held by Ramon (Raymond) de Termes during the Cathar War , the castle
fell to Simon de Montfort after a siege lasting four months, from
August to November 1210, the hardest siege of the first period of
the Albigensian Crusade.

Termes was a powerful castle sited on top of a large natural hill
in the Corbières
(in the present departement of the Aude
département but then part of the County of the Razès).
It consisted of a citadel within town walls (the castrum) and with
a suburb (burg) next to it with its own defensive walls. Like the
Château
of Montségur (Montsegùr)
it was protected by a separate forward outpost - this one called
Termenet. The castle is open to the public.

Steps to preserve the site were taken in the 20th century. It has
been classified as a monument historique since 1942. Since 1989,
it has been the property of the commune of Termes. It is a 15 to
20 minutes walk from the village and open to visitors.

The site offers impressive views of the Terminet Gorges.

History

In
1084 Pierre-Olivier became the lord de Termes, but the first mention
of a castle there dates from 1110. Guilhem de Termes, rendered homage
to the Viscountess of Narbonne en 1118 and Ramon de Termes rendered
homage to Roger Trencavel as Viscount of the Razès in 1137.

There is no evidence that Raymond of Termes was himself a Cathar,
though his brother certainly was. Benedict of Termes (Benoît
de Termes) had been a Cathar representative at the Colloquy of Montréal
in 1207, the final debate in Pamiers with Dominic
Guzmán representing the Catholics. (The public failure
of the future Saint
Dominic and his colleagues at this debate had been a contributory
factor to the calling of the Albigensian Crusade by Pope Innocent
III soon afterwards). Benedict was elected Cathar Bishop of
Razès in 1226 at a council held at Pieusse.
The only other circumstantial evidence of a Cathar connection is
that Lords of Termes were constantly squabbling with the Abbey
of Lagrasse over their respective rights. On the other hand
this sort of dispute was normal at this period even for the most
pious Catholic rulers.

Following
the fall of Minerve
and Carcassonne
in 1209 and Minerve
and Bram
in 1210, Simon
de Montfort and his Crusaders failed to take the three châteaux
at Lastours
(Cabaret). He turned his attention to Termes. The Château
of Termes was besieged for seven-months between June and 22nd November
1210. Simon's siege machinery arrived from Carcassonne
in August, the transport party having been harried along its 30
km journey south east from Carcassonne
by Raymond of Cabaret. His commanders included the counts of Dreux
and of Ponthieu, the archbishop of Bordeaux, and the bishops of
Chartres and of Beauvais. His forces were supplemented by contingents
from Bavaria, Saxony, Frisia, Maine, Anjou, Normandy, Brittany,
Lombardy, Gascony and Provence.

Initially
de
Montfort saw little success, but he was heartened by the arrival
of a steady stream of fresh crusaders. They initially used their
mangonels to bombard the southern walls with large stones. They
managed to breach the walls but not to force an entry and the defenders
seem to have been able to repair the breaches after repelling the
attacks.
De Montfort changed tactics and managed to take the forward
defense called le Termenet. From then on it was a battle between
the crusaders' and the defenders' catapults.

Château de Termes

The
summer was extremely dry, and unusually there had been no rain by
November. Both sides seem to have become disheartened. The crusaders
were keen to go home before winter - they were required to serve
for only forty days ("quarantine") to earn their remission
of sins past and future and win a guaranteed place in heaven. The
crusader army therefore depended on a regular turnover of new arrivals
to replace those who left. By November many of the key commanders
were ready to go and started packing up. Inside, the defenders were
running out of water and thirst drove them to come to terms.

On
the night before they were due to render the castle the heavens
opened and heavy rains refilled the castle's water cisterns. It
looked like the defenders were saved, but the demoralised defenders
had failed to anticipate the downpour, and had not cleared the empty
cisterns of dead animals. Disease swept the Château, and the
seigneur Raymond of Termes decided to evacuate the garrison. They
escaped in the night of 23rd November, possibly through a secret
tunnel. Accounts vary, but one way or another Raymond of Termes
was captured. According to one version of the story he was trying
to go back into the besieged castle having once got out when he
was caught.

He
was imprisoned at Carcassonne
and died there three years later in de
Montfort's custody - just as his liege lord the young Raymond-Roger
Trencavel Viscount of Carcassonne had before him. Raymond's
son, Oliver de Termes, continued the fight after his father's death.
He fought alongside Jaime I King of Aragon, the young Raymond (later
Raymond
VII Count of Toulouse), and Raymond Trencavel Viscount of Carcassonne
- all four men of the same generation and all victims of the Crusade.
He was with the meridional army at the siege of Carcassonne
in 1240 trying to re-establish the Trencavels
to their city and Viscounties. After the failure of this enterprise
he submitted to the French king, Louis
IX, and accompanied him on crusade to the Holy Land.

The indigenous people were disheartened by the fall of Termes and
surrendered the nearby castles at Coustaussa
and Le
Bézu without a fight. De Montfort went on to besiege
Puivert.

After the château of Termes had been taken, it and another
château nearby (le
Termenès) were given to Alain
de Roucy, one of Simon
de Montfort's lieutenants. De Roucy experienced exactly the
same problems as Raymond had with the voracious Abbots of Lagrasse.
At his death his son ceded Termes to the Archbishop of Narbonne
in 1224. It passed to the King of France (Louis
VIII:) in 1228. Termes continued to be of strategic value to
the French as it lay near to the border with Aragon (to which it
had belonged before it was captured and annexed by France). Termes
is one of the "Five Sons of Carcassonne",
five Royal castles strategically placed to defend the border against
Aragon. The others are Aguilar,
Peyrepertuse,
Queribus
and Puilaurens.

In
1302, the garrison included a châtelain (a Castilian), an
écuyer (a knight), a chaplain, a guetteur (look-out), and
ten sergeants. In 1649 the border with Spain was moved further south
under the Treaty
of the Pyrenees and Termes lost its strategic importance. In
1652 Richelieu ordered the castle to be abandoned and demolished.
The walls were destroyed by a master mason from Limoux
using explosives, between 1653-1654. The ruins were listed in 1942
and became a "monument historique" only in 1989 when they
became the property of the local commune and were opened to the
public.

Today,
the modern village of Termes down by the river is home to some 50
inhabitants. A short walk from the modern village of Termes are
substantial ruins of the Château on a hill top nearby, including
the vestiges of an extensive system of forward defenses. The ruins
stand at an altitude of 470m on top of a hill surrounded on three
sides by a ravine formed by the river Sou. You can see where le
Termenet, the forward outpost, protected the fourth, most vulnerable,
side. Few of the remains date from the Crusade only part of the
southern face of the outer curtain wall, the inner wall and some
of the buildings it protected. The rest is the work of royal engineers
in the second half of the 13th century and the beginning of the
14th.

Further Information

Two
important sources of information about the siege in 1210 exist in
English translation. Both are by partisans of the French Catholic
crusaders:

Oliver distinguished himself in his
military service - becoming the respected companion
of kings and even popes. For the Count of Toulouse he
defended Labècede-Lauragais, besieged by the
French Royal army in 1227. Later he joined Jaime I the
King of Aragon in his conquest of Majorca, expelling
the Moors. On several occasions between 1234 and 1242
he administered the city of Narbonne
on behalf of Raymond
VII Count of Toulouse (Narbonne regularly revolted against its widely hated bishop
and the even more hated Inquisition).
With Raymond
Trencavel II the disspossed Viscount of Carcassonne
and Béziers,
he led the people of The
Corbières against the French King and led
the siege of Carcassonne
in 1240. In recognition he received fiefs the Lauragais,
in the Roussillon and in Majorca.

In
1245, after his suzerains had made their peace with
France, Oliver went into the service of the French King
Louis IX (Saint Louis). During the Seventh Crusade to
the Holy Land the king put him in charge of artillery
(maître Des arbalétriers). He distinguished
himself in defending Damietta in Egypt in 1250 and in
saving Jean de Joinville at the Château de Baniyas
in 1253. When Louis offered Oliver his family siegneurie
of Termenès, he returned
to Europe in 1255 and helped quell the last vestiges
of independence in the Languedoc - he gained the bloodless
rendition of Queribus
in the same year. After this he became the King's counsellor
in matters concerning the Languedoc, Aragon and Castille.
He was almost certainly involved in the drafting the
Treaty of Corbeil (traité de Corbeil) between
the Kings of France and Aragon in 1258 fixing the new
French-Aragonese border.

His
attachment to the Catholic cause appears to have been
genuine. From 1257 he started to sell off his possessions,
including the chateau of Aguilar
that he had had built, and gave the proceeds
to the Abbey of Fontfroide and other
Catholic establishments, keeping enough to finance another
expedition to the Holy Land. He left on Crusade again
in 1264 at the head of a Royal contingent. In 1269 he
was made Seneschal of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem
- in modern terms the head of the army there. He joined
Louis IX in 1270 at Tunis on his disastrous Eighth crusade
after which he returned to the Holy Land in 1274 leading
another contingent funded jointly by the French King
and the Pope. He died at Saint-Jean-d'Acre, in the kingdom
of Jerusalem (modern Israel) on 12th August 1274. His
remains were brought back to his homeland and are believed
to have been interred at Fontfroide
Abbey, perhaps in the chapel of Saint Bernard
(dedicated to Bernard of Claivaux) that he had had build
there.

Architecture

The castle has an anciente (curtain wall) protecting a donjon (keep),
cistern, chapel and other buildings. Things to note:

The first enceinte is polygonal and pierced with arrow loops.
It is 8 to 10 meters high and 1.2 metres thick. In the north east
corner is a tower and in the north west a postern gate (which
allowed the defenders to mount surprise counter attacks). The
north wall is furnished with spectacular latrines.

The entry is in the South East corner. It is defended by an
echauguette and a tower on the east wall. Note the bossed stones
of the tower.

A second, inner, enciente follows the outer one, and like it
the access is via a ramp. To the east is a water cistern and a
wash house. To the north is the keep and to the west the chapel.

Château de Termes - as it might have
looked in 1211

Château de Termes - as it might have
looked in 1211

Château de Termes - spring of an arch

Château de Termes - postern gate

Château de Termes - bossed stone

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Cathar Origins, History, Beliefs.
The Crusade, The Inquisition, and Consequences

The Siege of Termes (1210)
from The Song of the Cathar Wars

This text is from The Song of the Cathar Wars: The History of the
Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley (Aldershot: Ashgate,
1996).

The Song of the Crusade (Chanson de la Croisade in French) is a
poem written in Occitan at the time of the Crusade. It was written
in two parts the first by William of Tudele a supporter of the Crusade,
and the second by an anonymous and rather better poet who tended
to side with the victims of the Crusade. This text concerning the
siege of Termes comes in the first part and so has a similar pro-Crusader
bias to the account by Pierre Des Vaux-de-Cernay.

Count Simon de Montfort laid his siege before and all round Termes,
and then he heard this news. You can imagine how pleased he was
with Sir William of Contres and his companions for saving the siege
engines, and more pleased still at their defeat of the baron called
Peter Roger - God do him no good! For I believe the count would
not be so delighted to be given all the gold of Macon as he was
when they told him of the great victory Sir William of Contres had
won. Ah God, how well the news was announced by the noble young
man Sir William sent to escort those weapons! That task too, he
did well, I can truthfully say, bringing them safely all the way
to the siege before Termes.

De Montford's siege engines had
to brought on horse drawn carts south from Carcassonne.
They were attacked on the way by Languedoc knights led by Peter-Roger
de Cabaret,
but got through. The poet does not make any pretence at impartiality
- he is firmly in the crusader camp.

Here there were many barons, many tents of silk and fine pavilions,
many silk tunics and rich brocades, mailshirts too and many a fine
banner, many an ashen haft, ensigns and pennons, many a good knight
and fine young men of noble race Germans, Bavarians, Saxons, Frisians,
men from Maine, Anjou, Normandy and Brittany, Lombards and Longobards,
Gascons and Provencals. The lord archbishop of Bordeaux was there
and so was Sir Amanieu d'Albret and men from Langon. All those who
came did their forty days' duty, so that as some arrived, others
left. But Raymond, lord of Termes, counted none of them worth a
button, for no one ever saw a stronger castle than his. There they
kept Pentecost, Easter and Ascension and half the winter, as the
song says.

The Crusaders came mainly from
France and northern Europe, but there were others - attracted by
the promise of the benefits in this world and the next.

No one ever saw so numerous a garrison as there was in that castle,
men from Aragon, Catalonia and Roussillon. Many were the armed encounters
and shattered saddle-bows, many the knights and strong Brabanters
killed, many the ensigns and fine banners forcibly borne off into
the keep against the crusaders' will. As for the mangonels and catapults,
the defenders did not think them worth a button. Meat they had in
plenty, both fresh meat and salt pork, water and wine to drink and
an abundance of bread. If the Lord God had not dealt them a blow,
as he did later when he sent them dysentery, they would never have
been defeated.

Termes was a fief of the Viscount
of Carcassonne who held it on behalf of the King of Aragon. Mangonels
are catapults - referred to earlier as siege engines. The poet sees
the hand of God in every defender set-back.

My lords, will you hear how Termes was taken and how Christ Jesus
there displayed his mighty power? Nine months the army sat around
that stronghold until its water supply dried up. They had wine for
another two or three months, but I do not think anyone can live
without water. Then, God and the faith help me, there was a heavy
downpour of rain which caused a great flood, and this led to their
defeat.

The siege actually lasted four
to seven months, not nine.

What seems to have happened is
that dead animals had fallen into the empty water cisterns. When
the rain finally came it refilled the cisterns, but the water was
infected from the dead animals.

They put quantities of this rainwater into butts and barrels and
used it to knead and cook with. So violent a dysentery seized them
that the sufferers could not tell where they were. They all agreed
to flee rather than die like this, unconfessed. They put the ladies
of the castle up into the keep, and then when it was dark night
and no one could see what was happening, they went out, taking with
them no possessions, nothing, I believe, except money.

They apparently escaped by means
of an underground tunnel.

At that point Raymond of Termes told them to wait because he was
going back into the castle, and while they waited some Frenchmen
met him on his way in and they captured him and took him to the
count de Montfort. The others, Catalans and Aragonese, fled to escape
being killed. But the count de Montfort behaved very well and took
nothing from the ladies, not even the value of a penny coin or a
Le Puy farthing.

The fact that Simon behaved "very
Well" on this occasion is indeed remarkable - a stark contrast
to his usual behaviour. The crusaders must have been content with
their other booty, which the poet mentions elsewhere: "the
siege will cost many a mark and many a penny of Tours. Horses and
palfreys will be won, and much wealth, much fine armour".

When it was known throughout the land that Termes had fallen, all
the strongest castles were abandoned, and Le Bezu was taken, without
any need for sieges. The men of these garrisons who left the castles
never supposed that the crusaders would get that far. God who is
full of mercy worked a great miracle there, for he gave finer winter
weather than anyone has known in summer.

The text actually refers to Albedun
which was identified as referring to Le
Bézu only in recent times. Coustaussa appears to have
submitted at the same time as the next stronghold to be attacked
was Puivert.

The Siege of Termes (1210), according to the Historia Albigensis
by Pierre Des Vaux-de-Cernay

It is likely that Pierre Des Vaux-de-Cernay travelled with the
Crusader armies of Simon de Montfort, and was an eyewitness to many
of the events he describes. He is not impartial. He supports the
crusaders wholeheartedly (he was a member of their camp), and portrays
anyone who opposed them as caricatures of wickedness. The French
knights lead "our troops" and their leader Simon de Montfort
is "our Count".

As there are so few sources, Pierre Des Vaux-de-Cernay is one of
the most important witnesses of information for the Albigensian
Crusades if allowance is made for his consistent bias, credulity
and naïvité. The Historia
Albigensis was written between about 1212 and 1218 when
Peter was a young monk at the Cistercian
abbey of les Vaux-de-Cernay, where his uncle Guy was the abbot.
Guy had taken part in the unsuccessful preaching mission against
the Cathars in 1207. He (Guy) later played an important part in
the crusade and became bishop of Carcassonne. The following portion,
is from sections 171 to 192 of chapter 7, of the Historia
Albigensis; (See also English Historical Review, Vol.
114, No. 459 (Nov., 1999), pp. 1287-1288).

[171] Description of Termes. The castrum of Termes was in the territory
of Narbonne, five leagues from Carcassonne. It was marvellously,
indeed unbelievably, strong and in human estimation appeared to
be quite impregnable. It was situated on the summit of a very high
peak, overlooking a huge natural cliff, and surrounded on all sides
by very deep and inaccessible ravines, with water flowing through
them, surrounding the whole castrum. In turn the ravines were surrounded
by huge crags, so difficult to climb down from that anyone wishing
to approach the walls would need first to throw himself into a ravine
and then as it were "crawl back towards heaven". Moreover,
a stone's throw from Termes itself, there was a crag on whose summit
there was a small but very strong fortified tower known as "Termenet".
So situated, Termes could be approached from one side only, where
the rocks were lower and less inaccessible.

[172] The lord of this place was a knight named Raymond who as
an old man had become given over to a reprobate mind; a manifest
heretic who (to describe his evil nature in a few words) feared
not God neither regarded man. So confident was he in the strength
of his castrum that from time to time he was prepared to take up
arms against the King of Aragon, the Count of Toulouse or his overlord
the Viscount of Beziers. When this tyrant heard that our Count planned
to besiege Termes he gathered together as many knights as he could,
filled the castrum with large stores of food and whatever else he
needed for its defence and prepared to withstand the siege.

Raymond de Termes was as far as
we know an ordinary nobleman of his time and location.

[173] Siege of Termes. Arriving at Termes, our Count started the
siege with a modest force and was able to occupy a small part of
the castrum. The defenders, numerous and well protected, showed
no fear of our modest army; they were able to come and go freely
to obtain water and whatever else they needed whilst our men watched,
too weak to oppose them. Whilst this and similar events were taking
place small groups of French crusaders were arriving each day to
join the army. Seeing them arrive, our adversaries climbed the walls
and poured down abuse on our men, because the newcomers were so
few and poorly armed, calling derisively: "Fly from the sight
of the army, fly from the sight of the army!" Soon afterwards
crusaders began to come in large groups from France and Germany,
whereupon the enemy began to be afraid, stopped heaping insults
on us and became less bold and confident. Meanwhile the Lord of
Cabaret, the chief and most cruel enemies of the Christian religion
at that time, patrolled the public roads near Termes night and day
and whenever they carne across any of our men either condemned them
to a shameful death or, to show their contempt for God and our side,
most cruelly put out their eyes and cut off their noses and other
members, and sent them back to the army.

Notice that de Montfort is "our"
Count. It is not clear whether the charge against the defenders
is true or just routine propaganda (It is not mentioned in other
courses).

[174] Arrival of the Bishops of Chartres and Beauvais and many
other nobles. So matters stood when a number of noble and powerful
men arrived from France; Renaud, Bishop of Chartres, Philip, Bishop
of Beauvais, Count Robert of Dreux and also the Count of Ponthieu.
They were accompanied by a substantial force of crusaders whose
arrival greatly cheered the Count of Montfort and the whole army.
It was hoped that strong action would result from the arrival of
these powerful men; and that they would grind down the enemies of
the Christian faith with a strong hand and a stretched out arm.
But He who puts down the mighty and gives grace to the humble, through
some secret design known only to Himself, wished nothing great or
glorious to be achieved by their hand. As far as human reasoning
can determine, the just judge so acted either because they were
not worthy to be the instrument for the great and worshipful God
to do great and wonderful things; or because if great men were to
perform any great deed it would be ascribed entirely to human power,
and not Divine. So, the Heavenly Disposer thought it better to keep
that victory for the humble, so that by winning through them a glorious
triumph He might give glory to His own great name. Meanwhile our
Count had siege-engines erected of the kind known as petraries.
These bombarded the outer wall of Termes, whilst our men laboured
day by day on the siege.

Note that here, as in all other
sources, the Chronicler refers to his own side as being from France.
No-one in this period thought of the lands of the Viscounts of Carcassonne
or the Counts of Toulouse as being part of France.

Note too, that it was perfectly
normal for bishops to take an active part in wars - no chronicler
ever considers it worth explaining or justifying.

[175] The Archdeacon of Paris. Present in the army was a
venerable man of high honour, William the Archdeacon of Paris. Inspired
by zeal for the Christian faith, he had dedicated himself totally
and devotedly to the service of Christ. He preached every day, organised
collections to contribute to the cost of maintaining the siege-engines
and carried out other similar and necessary duties with great enthusiasm.
He frequently led large groups of crusaders to a wood and had them
gather large quantities of timber for the engines. One day our men
were trying to erect an engine near the walls but were prevented
by a deep ravine. This man of steadfast purpose and incomparable
zeal, in the spirit of wisdom and courage found the solution needed
to overcome this obstacle; he led the crusaders to the wood, instructed
them to take back a huge quantity of timber, and had them fill the
ravine with wood, earth and stones thus providing a level place
for our men to erect the engine. Since I cannot describe in full
all the planning, care and effort the Archdeacon devoted to the
siege, or the burden of work he undertook, suffice it to say that
to him more than anyone, save God alone, must be ascribed the unceasing
and dedicated enthusiasm brought to the siege and the victorious
outcome. He was a man outstanding in piety, wise in counsel, and
of a courageous heart. Whilst the siege was in progress God granted
him such grace that he was found to be most expert in all things
needed for its success; he taught the smiths, he instructed the
carpenters, he excelled every craftsman in showing what had to be
done to further the siege. As already described, he arranged for
the ravines to be filled and again when it was necessary, had the
high bills made level with the deep valleys.

Clergymen were the nearest to architects
and engineers the Medieval Christian educational system produced.
Many became weapons experts - another bishop was called in specially
for this reason at the siege of Montségur.

[176] Attack on the outer bourg. So the siege-engines were set
up close to the castrum and employed for some days in hurling missiles
against the wall. As soon as our men saw that the outer wall had
been weakened by the continuous bombardment of stones, they armed
themselves with the intention of taking the outer bourg by a frontal
attack. Our opponents observed this and as our men drew near to
the wall set fire to the outer bourg and withdrew to a higher bourg.
However, as soon as our men entered the outer bourg the enemy came
out to meet them and quickly drove them out in flight.

[177] Such was the state of affairs when our men realised that
their attempts to capture the castrum were being severely impeded
by the tower of Termenet which I described above, and which was
defended by a body of knights, and they began to consider how they
might capture it. They therefore set guards at the base of the tower
(which, as I mentioned, was built on the summit of a high crag),
so as to prevent the men in the tower having access to Termes itself
or those in the castrum providing help to the tower if need arose.
After a few days our men succeeded, with great difficulty and at
great risk, in erecting a siege-engine of the type known as a mangonel
in an inaccessible place between Termes and the tower. The defenders
in their turn erected a mangonel and bombarded our engine with huge
stones, but could not knock it down. Thus our mangonel was able
to continue bombarding the tower. The defenders now realised that
they were besieged and could expect no help from their comrades
in Termes, and one night in fear for their safety they sought protection
in flight, leaving the tower empty. The guard at the base of the
tower was being mounted by the sergeants of the Bishop of Chartres;
they occupied the tower as soon as they saw what had happened, and
erected the Bishop's standard on the roof.

It was normal for defenders to
build their own war machinery, often targeting the attackers' siege
engines. Indeed attackers always needed to guard against a sortie
designed specifically to destroy their machinery (Raymond of Cabaret
had done exactly that to Simon's mangonels at Carcassonne)

[178] Whilst this was going on, our petraries on another side of
the castrum kept up a continuous bombardment of the walls. When
our adversaries - who were admittedly courageous and astute - saw
that the engines were weakening any part of the walls, they at once
built a barrier of wood and stones inside at the weak point. The
outcome was that whenever our men were able to force their way inside
the walls at any place, the barrier built by the enemy prevented
there from going any further. As space does not permit one to describe
every detail of the siege, 'I shall simply say that every time the
defenders lost any part of their wall they built another wall inside
in the manner I have described.

Petrary is the generic name for
stone throwing machines of war. The term covers catapults, trebuchets
and mangonels. Catapults and mangonels are both mentioned explicitly
at Termes, but not trebuchets.

[179] Meanwhile our men erected a mangonel in an inaccessible place
at the foot of a crag near the wall, which inflicted no slight damage
on our enemies when it was put to use. Our Count sent a force of
three hundred sergeants and five knights to defend the mangonel;
there was great concern for its safety, because our men knew that
our opponents would spare no effort to destroy an engine that was
causing them so much trouble, and also because the difficulty of
access to the mangonel would make it impossible for the main army
to help those guarding it in a emergency.

One day a force of enemy soldiers, up to eighty in number, protected
by shields, rushed out to destroy the mangonel, followed by a huge
number of other men carrying wood, fire and other materials for
setting light to the mangonel. When they saw the enemy coming the
three hundred sergeants guarding the mangonel were seized with panic
and fled, leaving only the five knights to maintain the defence.
What more? When the enemy drew near all the knights fled save one,
William of Ecureuil. This knight, seeing the enemy approaching,
began with great difficulty to climb over the crag to meet them;
they made a concerted rush against him, and he defended himself
vigorously. They saw that they could not capture him, and instead
thrust him with their spears onto the mangonel, and threw dry wood
and fire after him. This courageous man at once rose up and dispersed
the fire, so that the mangonel was unharmed. Once again he started
to climb up to face the enemy; once again they thrust him back and
threw fire on him. Again he rose up and went for the enemy; four
times in all they hurled him onto the mangonel. Finally our men
realised that since no one from our side could reach our knight
to help him, he would be unable to escape; they therefore went to
another part of the wall and made as if to mount an attack, whereupon
the enemy soldiers harassing William retired into the castrum. William,
albeit exhausted, escaped alive. His incomparable courage had ensured
that the mangonel was unharmed.

It is difficult to work out what
the writer is describing here - it is not really plausible that
a single knight could frustrate the attempts of some eighty armed
men to destroy a mangonel.

[180] At this time the noble Count of Montfort was beset by extreme
poverty, to the extent that he was very often even short of bread,
and had nothing to eat. Frequently - I have it on sure authority
- when a meal-time was at hand he would deliberately absent himself,
ashamed to return to his tent, since it was the time to eat and
he did not even have bread. The Venerable Archdeacon William organised
fraternities and made collections, as I mentioned above. Everything
he collected he spent conscientiously on the siege-engines and whatever
else was needed to further the siege: truly an admirable tax-gatherer,
a virtuous plunderer?

It is plausible that Simon ran
out of money - he had only small estates in France and none in England
(his title of Earl of Leicester was an empty one). He was certainly
an expert plunderer, but there is only a finite amount to plunder
in any given area.

[181] So matters stood when our opponents ran out of water, for
our soldiers had cut off the approaches to the castrum and they
could not get out to draw water. Lack of water produced lack of
courage and of the will to resist. What more? They started to parley
with us, and sought to negotiate peace on these terms: Raymond,
the lord of Termes, promised to hand it over to the Count provided
the Count allowed him to retain all his other possessions; also
the Count was to return Termes to him after Easter.

All standard siege behaviour

Whilst discussions on these proposals were going on, the Bishops
of Chartres and Beauvais, Count Robert of Dreux and the Count of
Ponthieu proposed to leave the army. The Count begged them to stay
a little longer to carry on the siege, and everyone else added their
pleas; but as they could not be diverted from their purpose, the
noble Countess of Montfort threw herself at their feet and begged
them passionately not to turn their backs on the Lord's business
in the hour of such great need, and to give help at this time of
crisis to the Count of Jesus Christ, who every day was exposing
himself to mortal danger on behalf of the Catholic Church. The Bishop
of Beauvais, Count Robert and the Count of Ponthieu were unmoved
by the Countess's prayers, but said that they would leave the next
morning and were quite against staying even for one more day. The
Bishop of Chartres, however, promised to remain with the Count for
a short time longer.

[182] The Count accepts proposals for a truce. The Count realised
that with the departure of these three leaders he would be left
virtually alone, and was driven by plain necessity, however unwillingly,
to consent to the terms for an agreement offered by our adversaries.
What else is there to say? Talks were reopened with the enemy and
the agreement was confirmed. The Count at once instructed Raymond
to leave his castrum and surrender it; the latter refused to leave
that day, but gave a firm undertaking to hand the place over early
next morning. That Divine justice willed and foresaw this delay
is most clearly demonstrated by subsequent events; for God, the
most just judge, did not wish that the man who had so grossly wronged
His Holy Church (and was ready to do still worse, if he could) should
escape immune and unpunished after a life so dedicated to cruelty,
since - to say nothing of his other crimes - thirty years and more
had now passed (as I have heard from trustworthy witnesses) during
which the Holy sacraments were never celebrated in the church at
Termes.

The Medieval clerical mind only
rarely failed to discern the hand of God in events - however they
unfolded.

[183] The following night, there was a sudden intense rainstorm,
as if the sky had broken apart and the floodgates of heaven had
opened. So great was the downpour that our enemies, who had long
suffered from an extreme shortage of water, and had for this reason
proposed to surrender to us, now found themselves with an abundant
supply. Our harp is turned to mourning, the grief of our enemies
is changed to joy! They at once became arrogant and recovered their
courage and the will to resist. Their cruelty, their eagerness to
oppose us, increased, the more so because they dared to think the
storm was a sign that some Divine aid had come to them in their
hour of need. What a vain and unjust presumption, to boast of help
from Him whose worship they despised, whose faith they had rejected!
They said indeed that God did not wish them to surrender; all this,
they asserted, had been done for their benefit - but in truth Divine
justice had arranged it for their downfall.

As in all battles in Medieval Christendom,
both sides were adept at discerning the Hand of God - and both disparaged
the absurd claims of the other side.

[184] Departure of the nobles. So matters stood when the
Bishop of Beauvais, Count Robert and the Count of Ponthieu left
the army and returned home, leaving Christ's business unfinished
and indeed in a most critical and dangerous position. If I may be
allowed to record what they allowed themselves to do they left without
completing their forty days' service. Indeed the papal legates,
aware that most of the crusaders were somewhat lukewarm in their
enthusiasm for the campaign and perpetually anxious to go home,
had laid it down that the indulgence promised to the crusaders by
the Pope would not be granted to anyone who failed to complete at
least one full period of forty days in the service of Jesus Christ.

The 40 days is called "quarantine".
Crusaders were required by feudal law to serve for only the 40 days
of their quarantine. This was enough to earn them full remission
of sins passed and future and win a guaranteed place in heaven.
Only those driven by zeal, bloodlust or greed for booty stayed longer
than they had to. It is notable that the chronicler lets slip the
fact that the crusaders' enthusiasm was lukewarm. Despite Peter's
propaganda, few nobles apart from churchmen enjoyed despoiling their
fellow nobles.

[185] At first light the Count sent to Raymond, the lord of the
castrum, ordering him to hand it over as he had promised on the
previous day. Raymond, however, who now had water in plenty instead
of the shortage which had produced his willingness to surrender
and who also saw that almost the whole strength of the army was
leaving, changed his mind and wormed his way out of his undertaking.
However, two knights in Termes who had on the previous day given
firm promises of surrender to the Count's Marshall did come out
and give themselves up to the Count.

When the Marshal, who had been instructed by the Count to go in
person to parley with Raymond, returned and reported what the latter
had said, the Bishop of Chartres (who wanted to leave next day)
urged that the Marshal should be sent again to Raymond and offer
a truce on whatever terms were acceptable to him, so long as he
agreed to hand over the castrum. In the hope that it would help
in persuading Raymond to agree, the Bishop further advised that
the Marshal should take with him the Bishop of Carcassonne, who
was with the army, because he was a native of the area and was known
to the murderous lord of Termes; moreover the bishop's mother -
a heretic of the worst sort - was in the castrum as was his brother
William of Roquefort whom I have already mentioned. William was
a most cruel man, who strove to excel others in hostility to the
Church. The Bishop and the Marshal again approached Raymond. Arguments
were succeeded by prayers, prayers by threats, as they strove energetically
to persuade the tyrant to accept their advice and surrender himself
to our Count, and indeed to God, on the basis I described above.
Previously the Marshal had found Raymond obstinate and determined
in his hostility; now the Bishop and the Marshal found him even
more obstinate. He refused even to allow the Bishop to speak privately
with his brother. With nothing achieved, the two returned to the
Count. As yet, our people did not clearly see that (as I have already
said) Divine goodness had ordained matters in this way, the better
to forward the interests of His Church.

[186] Departure of the Bishop of Chartres. At first light next
day the Bishop of Chartres left. The Count left the army and went
with him, intending to follow him for a short distance. When he
was some little way from the army, a large armed band of our enemies
came out of Termes intending to demolish one of our mangonels. The
shouts of our army induced the Count to return. He reached the enemy
soldiers who were pulling down the mangonel and, quite alone, compelled
them willy-nilly to return to the castrum. He pursued them with
great courage, and put them to flight not without peril to his own
life - the act of a courageous leader and a valiant man.

Another single handed victory!

[187] The Count saw that with the departure of these nobles, that
is the Bishops and the Counts, he was virtually alone and almost
deserted. He was now extremely anxious and concerned, and did not
know what to do. He did not want to abandon the siege, but could
not stay where he was any longer; he had many well-armed opponents,
but few allies of whom most were ill-equipped, since, as I have
said, the whole strength of the army had gone with the Bishops and
the Counts. Besides, Termes was still very strong and it was felt
that it could be taken only by a strong and numerous force. Moreover,
winter was approaching and was usually very severe in that region;
Termes was situated in a mountainous area (as I have already described),
and consequently, what with heavy rainfall, violent winds and an
abundance of snow, it was an unusually cold and almost uninhabitable
place.

[188] Whilst the Count was thus troubled and distressed and at
a loss what to do, one day a contingent of crusaders on foot came
on the scene from Lorraine. The Count was delighted by their arrival
and strengthened the siege. With the industrious help of Archdeacon
William, our men regained their spirits and began to work hard on
everything concerned with the siege. At once the siege-engines,
which had previously had little success, were brought nearer the
walls. Our men worked on them continuously and did no little damage
to the walls. In some strange way, by the incomprehensible dispensation
of God, a marvellous thing happened; the engines, which had achieved
little or nothing whilst the nobles and bishops were with the army,
began - now that they had gone - to fire with an accuracy that suggested
the Lord himself was aiming each stone. In truth, this was the Lord's
doing and was marvellous in our eyes.

[189] After our men had spent some time working on the machines
and had succeeded in weakening a large section of the keep, one
day, the feast of St Cecilia, the Count had a trench carefully dug
out and covered with hurdles, which would allow sappers to approach
the wall and dig under it. The Count spent the whole day on the
preparation of the trench without breaking off to eat, and as night
approached - it was the eve of the feast of St Clement - he returned
to his tent. The enemy in Termes, with the intervention of Divine
clemency and the help of the Blessed Clement, were seized with fear
to the point of utter desperation. They at once ran out, seeking
to escape. The men of our army saw what was happening, raised a
great shout, and began to run hither and thither in order to capture
the fugitives. I need delay no longer - many escaped, some were
captured alive, even more were slain. A crusader from Chartres,
a poor man and a commoner, had joined his comrades in pursuit of
the fleeing enemy. By a Divine judgement, he captured Raymond, the
lord of Termes, who had found a hiding place, and handed him over
to the Count. The Count treated his capture as an unexpected gift;
he did not kill him but had him confined to a dungeon in the keep
at Carcassonne where for many years he paid a wretched penalty worthy
of his crimes.

This account differs from that
in the Song of the Cathar War. We are not informed what Raymond's
crimes were - apart from defending his home against foreign invaders.

[190] A miracle. There was one event at the siege of Termes which
I must not pass over. One day the Count arranged for a small siege-engine,
commonly known as a `cat', to be brought up to help in undermining
the wall. The Count was standing near the engine and speaking with
a knight. As a gesture of familiarity he placed his arm on the knight's
shoulder, when a huge stone, thrown down from the enemy's mangonel
and falling from a height with great force, struck the knight on
the head. Through God's wonderful power the Count, though he had
been embracing the knight, escaped unharmed. The knight received
a mortal blow and died.

A cat was an engine designed to
claw away at the mortar between the stones in a castle wall. God's
wonderful power seems to have been only temporarily available to
Simon as he was later killed when he was hit on the head by another
huge stone from another mangonel while standing by another cat (at
Toulouse).

[191] Another matter worthy of note. Another time, on a
Sunday, the Count was in his tent celebrating Mass. An incident
occurred which demonstrated God's provident mercy. The Count was
standing to hear the Mass, and by Divine intervention a sergeant
was standing right behind him. Suddenly a bolt from the enemy ballista
struck the sergeant and killed him. No one should doubt that this
was the result of Divine goodness; clearly in arranging that the
sergeant should stand behind the Count and take the force of the
missile, God's intention was to preserve the vigorous athlete of
His Holy Church.

[192] After the capture of Termes, on the eve of the feast of St
Clement, and its occupation by our troops, the Count led his forces
to a castrum named Coustaussa.
Finding it deserted he went on to another castrum named Puivert,
which surrendered within three days.

He does not mention Le
Bézu which is presumed to have surrendered without a
fight.